Botox treatment in dentistry

April 7, 2016

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Botox in a dental office?…

That’s typically the response that we hear. Interestingly enough Botox does have a place (and a big one as a matter of fact) in a dental office. It does depend though what type of dental office we’re talking about. In a cosmetically oriented one, it makes ample sense. And here’s why: typically you see a cosmetic dentist to address something about your smile (crookedness, yellowness of the teeth, different shapes of the teeth, large discolored fillings, gaps, completely worn out teeth from clenching/grinding/eating disorders..); but we tend to forget sometimes that a smile is not just the teeth. Surely, they’re a part of a it but it’s also your whole face; it’s the lips (their volume and their position when smiling), the gums (how much you show when smiling as well as their healthiness and shade along with architecture), the lines that form around the mouth (on the nose, around the eyes, on the forehead), etc. When someone is smiling, you look at their whole face usually (unless something is majorly off, in which case, you’d zoom in on that!).

Sometimes, just “fixing” the teeth won’t give you the ideal smile because of all the parameters that makes one’s smile really.

So, yes, Botox and dermal fillers have a definite place in a dental office that’s cosmetically oriented.

If one’s been a smoker for instance, all the lines around the lips could be relaxed by Botox. If you smile super high (gummy smile), that could be addressed with various methods, one of which is a very simple 2 spot Botox treatment. If your nose creases significantly (bunny lines) when smiling, they too can be addressed very easily with 3 tiny injections. If you have wrinkles around the corners of the eyes when smiling (crow’s feet), they can easily be addressed with Botox as well. Wrinkle lines on the forehead or in between the eyebrows (which give a tired, angry look even sometimes which juxtaposes the smile) could too be easily relaxed with Botox.

What’s more though is that Botox could also address the clenching/grinding habit in individuals by really simple injections on the masseter muscle (sides of the face). This could be cosmetically oriented as well since over time it’d slim the sides of the face for those with hyperactive thick muscles on the side of the face (typically clenching related). And what’s awesome is that it usually also addressed the pain/soreness associated with bruxism that occurs on the temples/sides of the face. So, reduces the pain/headache associated with bruxism, slims the sides of the face to a more youthful one over time, and rescues the teeth from further wear! This of course means that it’d be ok if you didn’t wear your favorite nightguard every night 😮